All the gameplays I've seen, people expand very easily (Rome, Sparta, Tartessos, Macedonia etc.). I wonder if the game is really easy ... what do you think?
I am bit worried about this
I am bit worried about this
Easy?
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All the gameplays I've seen, people expand very easily (Rome, Sparta, Tartessos, Macedonia etc.). I wonder if the game is really easy ... what do you think?
I am bit worried about this
It depends on the person whom is playing. A lot of the people who got the game early have experience with PDX games. The ones who do not have a lot of experience with PDX games just so happen to be playing nations which start powerful.
Play Athens and then tell me that the game is easy.
The problem is that I am also an experienced player and have seen easy expansions with secondary countries.
And dont forget that the game is new for everyone
And dont forget that the game is new for everyone
The problem is that I am also an experienced player and have seen easy expansions with secondary countries.
And dont forget that the game is new for everyone
Not a single person (that I know of) is playing a weak nation or a nation with a tough start.
This is kind of what happens when the game consists of nothing but a few major powers (Rome, Carthage, Seleucids, Egypt, Maurya) and a bunch of minor tribes nobody has ever heard.
There's a two video series by MATN where he starts as Knossos (an OPM Cretan nation) and conquers the Cretan Island.
Did you watch the dividing the spoils stream? So many players fell to the ai, revolts or other ai nations ganging up on them. It's probably a bit more representative of what it's going to be like to play the game fort the first few hundred hours.
From what I have seen, it seems like nobody use governor armies which seems to be a huge mistake as governor armies help fight unrest which is not reduced by positive stability. It is possible that this feature is not explained well in the tutorial but I think they would do alot better if they started to use governor armies to keep the unrest at 0.
To be fair... all strategy games are easy once you know what to do. I've been playing them for decades and I find that you have to use goals and strategies that make the game fun but don't make you immediately overpowered.
Like... let's look at some examples.
Age of Empires 2. I was playing this earlier today, as England (my favourite faction). I know that if I advance to the imperial age and use fully upgraded longbowmen + trebuchets... I've won the game. The AI will never be able to counter me. So I don't do it. I allow myself to use some longbowmen but instead of trebuchets I use rams, and I throw some swordsmen in there too.
Rome, Medieval, Shogun 2 or pretty much any Total War game (and any mods you wanna use for them). Make an army of the most powerful units and... you win. So I just don't use the most powerful units, I make armies as historically accurate as possible. I also don't use full stacks, just 3/4 per stack.
Crusader Kings 2. Swear fealty to a powerful neighbour, eat the kingdom away from inside, make yourself the king/emperor... you win. So I just don't do that.
I tell ya, it's the same for any strategy game, whether it's RTS or grand strategy. It's just a case of learning how the game works and do things that make you win and avoid doing things that make you lose. Ya need to play in such a way that the game is fun but you don't do the things that make you overpowered. Unless you enjoy that type of thing I guess. Perhaps in I:R the key will be, for example, play as Rome but don't immediately annex 100% of Etruscan territory after the very first war with them. Just take something from them and leave them alive, let them make a defensive league with neighbours so the next war is harder or something.
Like... let's look at some examples.
Age of Empires 2. I was playing this earlier today, as England (my favourite faction). I know that if I advance to the imperial age and use fully upgraded longbowmen + trebuchets... I've won the game. The AI will never be able to counter me. So I don't do it. I allow myself to use some longbowmen but instead of trebuchets I use rams, and I throw some swordsmen in there too.
Rome, Medieval, Shogun 2 or pretty much any Total War game (and any mods you wanna use for them). Make an army of the most powerful units and... you win. So I just don't use the most powerful units, I make armies as historically accurate as possible. I also don't use full stacks, just 3/4 per stack.
Crusader Kings 2. Swear fealty to a powerful neighbour, eat the kingdom away from inside, make yourself the king/emperor... you win. So I just don't do that.
I tell ya, it's the same for any strategy game, whether it's RTS or grand strategy. It's just a case of learning how the game works and do things that make you win and avoid doing things that make you lose. Ya need to play in such a way that the game is fun but you don't do the things that make you overpowered. Unless you enjoy that type of thing I guess. Perhaps in I:R the key will be, for example, play as Rome but don't immediately annex 100% of Etruscan territory after the very first war with them. Just take something from them and leave them alive, let them make a defensive league with neighbours so the next war is harder or something.
I can't agree with your fear that the game will be too easy. You also have to realize that all of these streams have it on normal difficulty and I guess that we will at least have a easy and a hard difficulty, but maybe even a very hard and very easy difficulty. If anything, I think that it will be a bit too difficult but that is very subjective (easy difficulty, here I come lol). I do have my reasons why I think that especially the early game is going to be difficult which may or may not be the case during late game.
1. Attrition kills, like a lot. It will burn through your manpower like crazy.
2. Manpower recovery is VERY slow making attrition even more deadly.
3. Forts take a really long time to siege down, requires a sizable force to siege (for a lv 2 for 10k troops at all times) and you will take even more attrition. And lv2 forts are not rare even early in the game since the AI could and does build a fort in their capital making it a lv2 fort.
4. Loyalty of troops is also a difficulty to maintain and the same expensive units that you paid for with your precious manpower and money may one day decide that you are not their boss anymore and follow the general instead who feels emboldened by his loyal troops and decides that he wants you gone from power.
5. Money and manpower are resources that you really need to manage very carefully.
1. Attrition kills, like a lot. It will burn through your manpower like crazy.
2. Manpower recovery is VERY slow making attrition even more deadly.
3. Forts take a really long time to siege down, requires a sizable force to siege (for a lv 2 for 10k troops at all times) and you will take even more attrition. And lv2 forts are not rare even early in the game since the AI could and does build a fort in their capital making it a lv2 fort.
4. Loyalty of troops is also a difficulty to maintain and the same expensive units that you paid for with your precious manpower and money may one day decide that you are not their boss anymore and follow the general instead who feels emboldened by his loyal troops and decides that he wants you gone from power.
5. Money and manpower are resources that you really need to manage very carefully.
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Thanks. Looking at this, I will probably start with easy difficulty. I like bonuses but I don't want the AI to suffer any penalties. The very hard difficulty does look very hard, because not only do you suffer from a morale penalty but the AI gets huge bonuses to money, morale and manpower and the AI will also be more aggressive against you.
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Crete is the noob island. He started as one of the two most powerful city-states on the island as well. Athens is a tiny city-state who is a client of Phrygia. That alone makes expanding with them very hard as Phrygia will always be the war leader, and there is always the danger of being integrated so that has to be managed as well. Even if you do eventually break free you are then not only still small (most likely), but also surrounded by stronger enemies who probably don't like you at that point.
These let's plays have all had training wheels; granted, one of the streamers mentioned that they had wanted to start as Athens but PDX said, or implied, that he should not play a navy focused nation. This was, according to him, because PDX is working on a navy update (part of update 1.1, "soon" after release, free presumably) and didn't want the focus on something that they feel is not adequate.
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Well one big reason why is heavy infantry. You see nations like Sparta make use of its iron to easily steamroll all its light infantry neighbors. Really most nations without iron are free real estate as far as im concerned.
If this is true, I love it! Honestly even if it isn't free, I'll take it lol. We really need a navy expansion and it's good that PDX is (possibly) working on one immediately than making us wait.
He isn't the only streamer/youtuber who has mentioned this navy update either.
These are the two videos where it is mentioned. Both mentions are near the very beginning of the videos.
Was going through the beginning of the videos to find specific timestamps and it turns out that they both start talking about the update at ~1:18. Spooky. lol
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The streams I have seen have looked pretty easy, the Macedon play though chewed up Epirus in one war, which was a tad disapointing, but then again Macedon are a major power. At the end of the day it's going to be about manufacturing your own challenge as it always is with strategy games, expecting the AI to provide a consistent, clever opponent for hundreds of years, especially if your playing a a big dog is never going to happen. Is the game fun? do the mechanics work? is it immersive? does it interest me historically? will the game encourage me educate myself further about x, y and z?
To be honest, I'm done watching streams and diaries, I'm going to discover the game on my own next week and see what the community makes of it on release.
To be honest, I'm done watching streams and diaries, I'm going to discover the game on my own next week and see what the community makes of it on release.
Macedon went from 70 or so cities into 150 or something in a single war by eating Thrace and one of Phrygia's old subjects or something like that. However such massive expansion is only possible with claims from what I have seen reduce AE and warscore cost to half or something like that and Macedon will soon lose the claims as Cassander is getting old.
EU4 was really easy on release. You could basically auto PU other countries just by marrying them and then doing a claim war.
Imperator looks pretty easy so far but there's no reason why that can't change. If people want more challenge, there will be more challenge.
Imperator looks pretty easy so far but there's no reason why that can't change. If people want more challenge, there will be more challenge.